


brother, let me be your fortress.

by cryptidumb



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bad Parenting, Brotherly Love, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Physical Abuse, Protective Siblings, Transphobia, all abuse takes place off screen, but beware nonetheless, they're Good Boys who deserve hugs and deserve better, trans!remus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21528427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryptidumb/pseuds/cryptidumb
Summary: Roman wakes in the middle of the night to the sound of shouting and doors slamming.
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders
Comments: 11
Kudos: 196





	brother, let me be your fortress.

**Author's Note:**

> title from NEEDTOBREATHE's "Brother ft. Gavin DeGraw"- it just emanates creativitwins energy in this au i've got spinning

Roman wakes in the middle of the night to the sound of shouting and doors slamming. He fumbles for his phone on the nightstand and winces at the harsh light. 1:54am. He stumbles out of bed, pulls on a t-shirt, and carefully makes his way into the doorway peering down the hall. 

The voices are still muffled from where they argue in the kitchen- he’ll have to get closer if he wants to know what’s really happening. Cautiously, he tiptoes down the hall. Every logical bone in his body is telling him to go back to sleep, but his curiosity and indignation are louder: it’s 2am and they’re never this-

 _Wet: he is stepping in something wet_. Roman looks down- a broken coffee mug and its contents still puddled around the chunks of shattered porcelain. One step to the left and he would have ended up visiting the ER. 

“Fuck,” he whispers to himself, hand in his hair. 

Roman looks around, hoping that the mess is at least out of the way enough that he can avoid cleaning it until tomorrow. He glances around and the coast is mostly clear except for his own room, but- _oh._ **_Oh_ ** _._

He’s _right_ in front of Remus’ door, where the rest of the coffee drips and tiniest of the shards are embedded in the wall right beside his door. 

Immediately, Roman knocks on his brother’s door in an obnoxious pattern and bursts in before the other can respond. The room is filthy as usual, clothes and art supplies thrown everywhere and dirty dishes stacked on the desk that overflows with notebooks- Roman still finds his twin in the chaos easily. He’s sitting on the floor, facing away from Roman and hunched over a backpack that he keeps filling as if he didn’t hear his brother come in.

“Remus,” he calls softly, stepping in and closing the door behind him. The overhead light is off, but the soft yellow glow of the lamp from his brother’s desk is enough to navigate the floor and plunk down onto the ground behind him. He doesn’t touch him, not yet. “Remus, what happened?”

The younger twin pauses, turns so Roman can see his profile ever so slightly from behind his sweatshirt’s oversized hood. The room is too dark with the shadows his sweater casts to see his face properly, but Roman can still make out the shiny tears tracking their way down Remus’ cheeks, especially jarring down one reddened cheekbone. 

Roman lets out an aborted sound and Remus just stares, laughs in a way that is empty of mirth, “Nothing important.”

“Ree-“

“It doesn’t matter Ro,” he turns away again and resumes stuffing his belongings into his backpack. Despite how rough he’s being, the sound of frantic packing isn’t enough to drown out the distant fighting down the hall. Remus pauses for a moment, hands wringing a pair of boxers together and he considers his next words. “I’m leaving,” he finally spits out. 

Roman’s heart drops down to his stomach. “ **_What?_ **” 

“I’m-“

“Oh no, I heard you just fine, you absolute doorknob,” Roman scoots around on the floor until he’s properly in front of his brother. His knee settles into something uncomfortably soggy and he chooses not to look down, instead focusing Remus’ face. Roman wipes a sticky teartrack from his brother’s jawline, pulls him into a hug. “Ree, whatever happened matters. _You_ fucking matter.”

His brother’s arms wrap around him a moment later, tightly clutching at the fabric of his t-shirt. When they pull away a moment later, Remus pulls his hood down. His hair is cropped short around his ears, the fresh cut jarring in comparison to the long curls he had left the house with only earlier that morning. Jarring, but good; and despite the bruise beginning to darken on the side on his cheek and bloodshot eyes, Remus looks pleased with himself, if only for a moment.

“D.J. did it in his bathroom after school. I know we talked about me keeping quiet…” Remus pauses and scratches absently at his leg, fiddling with the hem of his sock. His other foot is bare, strangely, but Roman tries not to think about that too much. “I couldn’t,” the younger twin continues, “Mom- as soon as I got home, she was furious that I’d cut it. Couldn’t figure out why I’d want to look like a boy. And the words just… fell out.”

Roman’s hand immediately sits on his brother’s knee, rubbing soothingly in a circle. Neither twin talks for a long moment. 

Finally, Roman finds the words, "You didn't-" he pauses, swallows hard around the lump in his throat. "You're not the one who did anything wrong. And- and you're not going alone."

"What?" Remus sniffles. He goes to wipe his nose with a sock from the floor and Roman only just stops him, offering a sleeve instead with a fond grimace. 

"You heard me, dirt for brains," he quips gently. Remus snorts and throws the sock at his brother who shrieks.

Silence settles over the twin brothers, Remus’ hands twisting in the straps of his overfilled backpack. Just as Roman is about to speak, suddenly his younger brother does: “Where are we even gonna go, Ro?” He looks desperate and lost.

“The Sanders’ always told me they would be here if we needed it. Virgil told his dads’ after he stayed over last time and mom had a fit,” Roman recalls, barely suppressing a shudder. 

_Virgil had left that night in a flurry of concerned questions, Roman rushing him out the door as his mother screamed and berated him all the while. There hadn’t been a moment longer than twenty minutes that Roman didn’t receive a text from the other boy asking if he was okay. Neither got much sleep that night._ “His parents cornered me the next time I went over to do homework,” he finishes.

“They aren’t gonna want me-”

“Yes, they will. It was an offer for both of us, dummy,” Roman ruffles his brother’s hair and Remus half-heartedly swats his hand away.

“Okay.”

“ _Okay_.”

Remus heaves a sigh, rising to his feet and extending a hand to his twin. Roman takes it, gets up himself, passing over the other's backpack as he does.

"Well," Remus says, “Lets go get you packed then- god knows it’ll take until morning.”

Roman punches the other’s shoulder, “Jerk.”

“Diva,” Remus grins, returning the action. 

“We’re gonna be okay, yeah?”

“Yeah, we will.”

**Author's Note:**

> i project onto my faves and couldn't stop myself- here's some trans!remus b/c i said so and some supportive bros creativitwins. 
> 
> there's more i could inject into this verse, but we'll see ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
